The present invention relates to an information handling method, and in particular to a method for controlling a server at a remote location, or a method for receiving results obtained by processing performed by a server at a remote location.
Conventionally, when remote control is to be exercised to use a resource at a remote location, special remote control software is installed in advance both in the machine to be remote controlled and in the machine to exercise the remote control. Many of the remote control machines that are currently available are designed for operation in a variety of hardware and software environments, and some machines are operated by hardware or an operating system (OS) that has restrictions. Therefore, a great expenditure of effort is required to develop remote control software and to install it on all these machines.
In addition, since the same software versions are typically installed on remote controlled machines and on those that exercise the remote control, a great expenditure of effort is also required to manage these machines. For example, before installing an upgrade version, the versions on all the remote controlling machines should be examined. If remote control software is developed for specific platforms, the types of machines to be remote controlled may be limited. Furthermore, the multi-platform operations which users may demand may not be capable of implementation. When special remote control software is routinely installed in remotely controlled machines, a certain amount of memory is typically permanently allocated for its storage. This allocation of memory may constitute a performance barrier, particularly to the downsizing of portable remotely controlled machines.
The above conventional problems may also occur in agent implementations disclosed in xe2x80x9cMobile Computer Agent Version J1.1, Third Edition, published by IBM Japan, Ltd. in October 1996 (SC88-3162-00)xe2x80x9d and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. Hei 7-182174 and Hei 7-509799.
A technique involving requesting a remote server to perform processing and then obtaining the processing result, is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9-22348 and xe2x80x9cMobile Computer Agent Version J1.1, Third Edition, published by IBM Japan, Ltd. in October 1996 (SC88-3162-00), pp. 1-4 to 1-10 and pp. 15-1 to 15-8.xe2x80x9d These documents disclose a technique whereby, as is shown in FIG. 13, a mobile agent, which holds information for designating a set of procedures to be executed by a server, is sent by a terminal to a server, which in turn executes procedures stored in advance according to the designated information.
The above technique typically requires a terminal having the capacity to prepare a file in the proper format, and also typically requires the installation of special software in the terminal. However, because a portable information terminal (a smart phone or a Personal Data Assistant (PDA)), which is a phone that provides an e-mail function and a simple input function, such as is performed with a numerical key pad and a set of function keys, is typically incapable of file preparation and handling, and because its storage area and input means are restricted, sending a request for the performance of complicated processing to a server from such a terminal is difficult, if not impossible. Furthermore, even a terminal that has an abundance of resources requires special software.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a computer system that can control a program to be executed by a server, even when special remote control software is not available at a remote control terminal.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a computer system that, while not requiring special software, can obtain processing results from a remote controlled server.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a computer system that can remotely control a server even when the memory capacity of a remote control terminal is small.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer system that can remotely control a server even when a remote control terminal cannot prepare and handle a file.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a remote control system whose employment is not dependent on the platform of the remote control terminal.
It is a still further object of the present invention to reduce the input required by a remote control terminal for the exercise of the remote control function.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a fast remote control system that reduces the quantity of data exchanged between a remote control terminal and a remotely controlled server during a remote control operation.
It is yet one further object of the present invention to provide a remote control system that can dynamically alter a remote control process currently desired by a user and execute it.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided by methods, systems and computer program products for remote control of a processing system by receiving a generic message from a message source and extracting from the generic message a source and instructions describing the control of the remote processing system. The remote processing system is the controlled in a manner specified by the instructions extracted from the generic message so as to provide processing results. A generic message containing the processing results may then be generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message. Preferably, the generic message is an e-mail message.
By utilizing a generic message to provide remote control of a processing system, the present invention allows for control of the processing system by any user with the capability of generating the generic message. Thus, no special software is required to perform the remote control function. For example, according to the present invention any system which can generate an e-mail could remotely control another processing system which was implementing the present invention. By utilizing a message which may be readily generated by a remote user with existing hardware and software the present invention allows for remote control without increasing the processing or memory requirements of the remote user""s system.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the header information of the e-mail is analyzed to extract the source of the e-mail. A body portion of the e-mail is also analyzed to extract keywords and parameters describing the control of the remote processing system. Furthermore, the generic message containing the processing results may also be an e-mail. In such a case, an e-mail containing the processing results is generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message.
In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the processing system is controlled by generating a mobile agent according to the extracted instructions and executing the mobile agent to obtain the processing results. Furthermore, the instructions may be in the form of an agent template specification and agent template change information. In such an embodiment, the mobile agent may be generated by selecting an agent generation template based on the agent template specification information extracted from the message and modifying the selected agent generation template based on the agent template change information extracted from the message so as to provide a modified agent generation template. The mobile agent is then generated according to the modified agent generation template. The mobile agent may also be transmitted to an agent server associated with the mobile agent and the results of the execution of the mobile agent received from the agent server to provide the processing results.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the generic message may be a voice message. In such a case, voice recognition software may be utilized to recognize information in the voice message from which the source of the message and the instructions describing the control of the remote processing system may be extracted. A voice message containing the processing results may also be generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the generic message comprises a facsimile message. In such an embodiment, optical character recognition software may be utilized to recognize information in the facsimile message from which the source of the message and the instructions describing the control of the remote processing system may be extracted. A facsimile message containing the processing results may also be generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message.
As will further be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, apparatus or computer program product.